After our Westin experience, it was time to pick up our family at the airport of Abu Dhabi. The cause of this short break in the Emirates was on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Ronald’s father (Maurice’s grandfather…). As a present of his children, Theo was invited to visit the “Dekkers on trek” in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. We were hosted in the Gateway hotel in the old part of Dubai and spend 4 days together?.

The Monday was used to discover the Marina area and to recover from the flight from Amsterdam.

That night we had dinner on the banks of the Dubai Creek with a perfect view on the “dows”, the lighted old freight ships now in use to entertain tourists.

Tuesday we had a relaxed morning before we were heading to the other downtown to visit the Burj Khalifa (the highest building in the world) and the Dubai mall (the biggest covered shopping mall in the world).

What an incredible buildings and what an overdose on luxury and materialism. We had a terrific Lebanese dinner and witnessed several shows of the huge fountain. The Wednesday we started with a visit to the spicy souk and crossed the Creek with a so-called Abra, a water taxi on ancient boats.

After a power nap of our birthday child, we were ready for a real desert adventure. With several 4×4 trucks, we had a rally in the dunes followed by a BBQ and some entertainment (camel drive, quad drive, belly dancer, shisha and henna painting).

On Thursday we visited the Jumeirah mosque including a tour and presentation about the rituals and facts on Islam. A very interesting presentation with sometimes a bit too much “local color”…

Time to take a dive into the warm Persian Gulf and relaxation on the Jumeirah beach as a preparation for the last diner together. We had a reservation in “the Hide” for a delicious steak and on top of that the waiters came with a tasteful surprise with a candle whilst singing “happy birthday to you” for an impressed (grand)father.

Early Friday morning, we dropped the entire party at the airport from Abu Dhabi and took our bicycles from the Westin parking to pick up our trek again?

We had a great break with our family and enjoyed the presence of our (grand)father very much!